10 Rich Habits to Improve Your Life

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Hi, Team! When I introduce a guest blogger on the site, I always say that I’m thrilled to feature the author, that I took great information from the post, and that I can’t wait for you to read it. And that is 100% true. If I didn’t love a guest post, it won’t get published. Period. So I will say all of those things about this post and this author. And I will also tell you that the below post about rich habits is incredibly insightful and can have a significant positive impact in your life.

But I’m not stopping there

This post was written by ESI from ESI Money, a blog about achieving financial independence through earning, saving, and investing (ESI). It’s written by an early 50’s retiree who achieved financial independence, shares what’s worked for him, and details how others can implement those successes in their lives. He is also the author of a free ebook titled Three Steps to Financial Independence and spends a lot of his time interviewing millionaires. He’s also the owner of Rockstar Finance, the leading curation site for the best personal finance articles (and he’s even let me crash the Rockstar party a time or two).

Straight up, ESI is a big deal in the personal finance blogosphere. On top of that, I’ve recently gotten to know him somewhat and have been incredibly impressed with his generosity and willingness to help out us other bloggers.

Do you get that him offering to write for MikedUp Blog is a big deal? Ok – sweet. I’ll stop rambling now… Here’s ESI:

When I travel, I usually take a book as there’s always some time when I’ll need it: on a flight, in the hotel for some downtime, on the beach relaxing, etc.

So his contention is that by practicing the ten habits, you basically tilt the “luck scale” in your favor. There’s still random bad luck to deal with, but the other three are either increased (the good ones) or decreased (the bad one) by practicing the ten habits, effectively increasing the odds that you’ll have “good luck” and avoid “bad luck.”

In general, I can agree with these conclusions

I think most people assume that there’s only random good luck and random bad luck. But there are things we can do that help increase our chances of being “lucky.”

On the negative side, we can smoke, put zero effort into personal development, spend most of our free time watching TV, and so on.

When you compare these two lists, it’s much easier to see how our daily habits can help us become lucky or unlucky depending on which we practice.

10 Rich Habits

The next part of the book details fictional accounts of people in tough situations, each with a different story. In one way or another they are pointed to one man who then shares the ten habits with them. In this respect, this book is very similar to The Richest Man in Babylon

Then the author finally gets to the ten promises (i.e. rich habits) as follows:

Promise #1: I will form good daily habits and follow these good daily habits every day.

Promise #2: I will set goals for each day, for each month, for each year and for the long-term. I will focus on my goals each and every day.

Promise #3: I will engage in self-improvement every day.

Promise #4: I will devote part of each and every day in caring for my health.

Promise #5: I will devote each and every day to forming lifelong relationships.

Promise #6: I will live each and every day in a state of moderation.

Promise #7: I will accomplish my daily tasks each and every day. I will adopt a “do it now” mindset.

Promise #8: I will engage in rich thinking every day.

Promise #9: I will save ten percent of my gross income every paycheck.

Promise #10: I will control my thoughts and emotions each and every day.

Quite an interesting collection, huh?

My Take on the Rich Habits

As you might expect, I have several thoughts on these:

Basically all of these promises can be boiled down to 1) create goals to accomplish worthwhile things, 2) make plans on how to accomplish them, and 3) track yourself to make sure you do them. That’s it, right?

I have followed this sort of process for most of my working life and I can attest to the fact that it works. It wasn’t by any superior ability on my part that these became engrained in my life at an early age. I was “lucky” to have had a class teach them to me at my first employer. Then again, I had gotten an MBA, had high grades and many substantial activities, had interviewed well, and applied myself to the teachings in the class. So was this random good luck or opportunity luck? 🙂

One way to achieve your goals is to begin each day a bit earlier than normal and get the important stuff done

It’s interesting that only one of the ten have a direct tie to money (#9). At first glance, you would think there would be more. But when you consider the list you can see how the other steps result in a rich life, not only financially but in other ways.

Overall, I like the list

I haven’t done all of these for my entire life (and certainly not “every day”), but I have applied many of these for long stretches of time. I can attest to the fact that they work — making my life better financially, mentally, spiritually, physically, and in many other ways to boot!

I’ll be buying more of these books and giving them away as gifts, especially to young people. If they can get these concepts down early and begin applying them soon, they have the power of time on their side to watch the habits make a huge impact over their lifetimes.

Those are my thoughts. What’s your take on the rich habits?

Thanks for reading!

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I’m glad you’re here. Thanks again and talk soon!

– Mike

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6 Comments

“Promise #5: I will devote each and every day to forming lifelong relationships.”

^I feel like this is one that’s easy to say, hard to execute. Can you imagine a world where everyone did this? Can you imagine a world where we all actually started every interaction or email with the intention of making it long lasting?

I mean, even with blog comments — imagine the difference in mindset. The amount of energy and effort we would probably shift from “here’s what I have to say AT you” to “how can I foster this relationship so that it is meaningful to both of us in the long run?” is nutttssss. MIND BLOWN.

Excuse me, Miss… But you’ve just blown my mind with this comment. It’s so true.

I can be such an ass when it comes to daily interactions with people who aren’t my close family – “I’m so busy I don’t have time for you” isn’t the best line or truth… This post by ESI (and the book itself) helped to put that in perspective for me. Then you just hammered the nail home.

Thanks so much for the comment and for reading. I really appreciate it.

Love these promises (tips)! We’ve been on the receiving end of both incredibly good and bad luck, and agree that while you can’t always control everything, you can at least do your best. And for many people, their best is enough for a life with more than they’ll need. They just don’t realize it.

Outcome = Event + Response … We can have influence over the outcome because we control the response. The independent variable is the event. Let’s just make the best of the cards we’re dealt…

I couldn’t agree with you more, and based on the little I’ve learned about you recently, I’d say that you have good perspective on both sides of this luck equation. Thank you for reading and for the comment. I really appreciate it.

I like the concept of opportunity luck. Luck really is what you make of it. If you don’t have the skills or money to take advantage of a lucky situation presented to you at the time, then it was like it never happened.

I love this comment. It makes me think of the story of the man stranded in the boat just waiting for God to come save him. The man turns away fishermen, other boats, and potential safety – all while waiting for God to intervene. The man dies, meets God, and asks – “Why didn’t you save me?!?”

God responds – “What do you mean! I sent you fishermen, boats, …!”

Let’s make the most of what we have and keep perspective over our situation. Great call, Xrayvsn!

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Hi, Team!

I’m Mike – current 30-ish CEO and Blogger. I write Financial insights for Family & Business, and Fitness tips for all! We’re growing our family-owned Business while I’m focusing on staying Fit and being a solid Family man… and writing about all the highs and lows on MikedUp Blog! Please subscribe (below) to my FREE Newsletter to share in the journey!

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